Phytogeographical Classification of Mesozoic Floras and their Bearing on Continental Drift

Abstract

ALTHOUGH much palaeobotanical work has focused on Palaeozoic plant geography there have been few attempts to classify Mesozoic taphofloras. The Jurassic flora was thought to be uniform all over the world though Oswald Heer showed that the Siberian Jurassic vegetation (contrary to the contemporaneous European vegetation) had been dominated by the Ginkgo allies¹. Nathorst referred to the Mesozoic flora of Siberia and Arctic islands as “Phoenicopsis flora”, and Prynada proposed the designation “Siberian” or “Phoenicopsis” flora for this type of Mesozoic vegetation. Vakhrameev^2,3 coined the term “Indo-European floristic province” for the rest of Eurasian taphofloras of this age, uniting two floristic regions (India and Europe) of rather different aspect. I propose the following phytogeographical classification.